


why don't you say so?

by s0ckies



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions
Genre: Denial of Feelings, First Crush, First Kiss, Kid Fic, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, they're all 9 years old
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:55:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22274413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/s0ckies/pseuds/s0ckies
Summary: When Raihan told his mum about Leon, as he seemed to do without pause these days, she called it acrush.Raihan knew what they were, of course—but he thought it was only something girls and boys had. He never knew he could have those feelings forLeonof all people, because best friends don’t have crushes on each other, right?
Relationships: Dande | Leon & Kibana | Raihan, Dande | Leon/Kibana | Raihan
Comments: 15
Kudos: 203





	why don't you say so?

**Author's Note:**

> ummm hi so this is my first raileon fic because i recently finished sword and i love these boys more than anything lol ... its really self-indulgent i just wanted child!raileon pining and raihan being dramatic about it so here u go!!
> 
> also unbeta-d so whatever grammarly didn't catch im sorry you have to read

Nothing can pull Raihan out of bed in the morning like the nudges from his Trapinch’s solid snout, it’s jagged teeth pulling at his tank top to try and drag him out of bed. Well, he supposes he _could_ sleep through that well enough like he has several mornings accidentally, but today it’s the high-pitched buzzing of his second-gen Rotom Phone that has him up and ready to face the day. Or, more like to see who is calling him this early when he’s supposed to be sleeping in. With Trapinch sated with a dried berry treat, Rotom comes into view and Raihan squints to see the screen in front of his face through the fuzziness of his newly-awoken vision.  
  
_“Zrrt! Good morning, Raihan! You have one missed call and two messages from Leon.”_

“Read the messages, please,” Raihan yawns, idly scratching at Trapinch’s favorite spot as his tired eyes slip shut again.

_ “Sure thing!”  _ Rotom responds, displaying the two missed messages on-screen as it reads them aloud,  _ “Come over to mine as soon as you get up! I have a surprise.” _

“A surprise…?” Raihan mutters to himself, rubbing his eyes and sitting in a sleep-laden stupor for a moment. Suddenly, it hits him. “A surprise?!” He’s up on two feet before his brain can comprehend, looking around his room for some clothes to throw on. Leon’s been away on vacation to Kanto for a week, though Raihan had totally forgotten they were coming back this morning. Sonia isn’t the best company when all he wants to do is train and battle and talk about all things pokemon since she already hears enough of it from her grandmother (and quite frankly, her Yamper couldn’t even begin to match up against his Trapinch), so he’s been stuck doing  _ whatever _ until his best friend gets back home. Now Leon is back, and he has a  _ surprise! _

It only takes Raihan five minutes to get some clothes on, brush his teeth, and grab his bag before he’s racing down the stairs where his mother is setting out plates on the dining table. “Why are you in such a hurry?” His mother starts, furrowing her brow at him slightly, but an amused smile comes to her lips all the same. “I made breakfast.”

“Can’t, sorry, Leon got back home this morning. He told me to come over as soon as I got up,” Raihan pants, taking a moment to catch his breath before yanking his coat from the hook by the door and shrugging it on before slinging his bag over his shoulder, double-checking to make sure he has Trapinch with him before bidding his mother farewell.

  
  


Raihan takes a flying taxi to Postwick, his knee bouncing in anticipation as he messages Leon to tell him he’ll be over in a few minutes. He nearly trips on the threshold of the taxi car before he gets out and gives the hulking Corviknight one of the berry treats from his bag as a thank-you and begins sprinting down the path to Leon’s house, dodging a few grazing Wooloo on his way.

“Rai!” He hears Leon before he sees him, though when as soon as he comes up the path he sees the other boy already at the gate to his house, waving enthusiastically as his best friend approaches. Raihan only picks up the speed, though Leon stops him like a brick wall once he arrives with a crushing bear hug. he lets out an “oof!” in response, laughing and wrapping his arms around his friend without hesitation. “I missed you!” Leon laughs along with him, pulling away from the hug with his hands on Raihan’s shoulders, the smile on his face warmer than a perfect summer day. _Oh, that’s a strange feeling in his tummy. Has that ever happened before?_ _  
_  
Raihan ignores it, unable to stop his own grin as he shrugs Leon’s hands away and bumps him playfully with his elbow. “Yeah, yeah, you big sap. Where’s the surprise?” He looks the other up and down, noting that the other hasn’t seemed to change at all. Well, besides the little ponytail he’s tied his unruly hair up into, _that_ is absolutely new.

“You didn’t miss me?” Leon pouts big and dramatically, though it only makes them both burst into another fit of giggles before he takes Raihan’s hand and tugs him inside where his mother is finishing up the dishes from breakfast, baby Hop finishing up the milk left in his bottle as he kicks his feet in his highchair. “We’re going up to my room, mum!” Leon belts, shoving his shoes off of his feet without letting go of Raihan’s hand. She begins to say something, but both of the boys’ excitement is enough to drown it out, and they’re racing up the stairs so quickly that Raihan trips and has to pick himself back up before continuing their sprint to Leon’s bedroom.

“Close your eyes!” Leon says before he opens the door, whipping around and spreading out both of his arms to prevent Raihan from pushing past him and ruining the surprise.

Raihan begins to protest, but he really can’t say no when Leon is looking at him with those big golden puppy eyes, so he sighs and closes his eyes, covering them with one hand for good measure. “Fine, but it better not be another Sizzlipede or I’m telling your ma!”

“It isn’t!” Leon assures him, taking the other’s free hand and opening his door to lead the other inside. A few steps in he drops Raihan’s hand, rustling around for a moment. Raihan is getting impatient, almost peeking on impulse, though he knows Leon would be upset if he did, so he just taps his foot and waits. “Okay!”  
  
Raihan’s eyebrows shoot up when he sees when he finally opens his eyes. Leon is cradling a pokemon egg in his arms, the thing obviously heavy with how the boy is holding it, and Raihan doesn’t hesitate to step forward and run his hand over it’s smooth, hard shell before looking up at Leon with wide eyes. “An egg?” He whisper-yells incredulously, not wanting to alarm Leon’s mother downstairs by causing a ruckus. “Where did you get it? What pokemon is it? When will it hatch?” His questions are rapid-fire, and it only serves to give Leon the giggles once more as he lets Raihan hold the egg. As he suspected, it is quite heavy, though he uses both hands to hold it against his chest nonetheless.

“The Pokemon Professor in Kanto gave it to me when I told him I wanted to be the Champion one day,” Leon sits down on his bed, hands on his knees as he watches Raihan examine the egg as if it will grand him x-ray vision into the pokemon slumbering peacefully inside. “He told me that if I take care of it and raise it right, it’ll be one of the strongest pokemon I’ll ever meet. He didn’t tell me what it is, though…” Leon, too, is dying to know what kind of pokemon he’s been given, though any pokemon is better than none, and he’s more excited to finally get to start the gym challenge then dwell over what kind of creature he’ll be training. The Professor saying it will be strong is more than enough for him.

“I’ve only ever seen pokemon eggs in the incubator at Professor Magnolia’s lab… Leon, this is brilliant! You’ll get to train your first pokemon from scratch!” Raihan beams up at his best friend, eager to begin their gym challenge since he and Sonia have been waiting months for Leon to finally get his first pokemon.

Leon nods enthusiastically, bumping his heels against the frame of his bed, “I hope it likes me… I’ve been trying not to move it around—I don’t know if pokemon know what’s going on out here when they’re still in the egg. The Professor just told me to be careful, and treat it like I would treat Hop.”

“Well, you’re always manhandling Hop, so I don’t think that’s very good advice,” Raihan snickers, thinking back to the several times Hop has gotten a bump on his head or a bruise on his knees from Leon accidentally playing too rough with him. It’s all fun in games until the baby starts screaming at the top of his lungs and they’re both getting scolded by Leon’s mum.

“You know what I mean!” Leon huffs, puffing his cheeks out for a moment before he’s taking the egg back and wrapping it up in the soft orange baby blanket his mom gave him to keep it warm. “He said it doesn’t need an incubator because it’s a fire pokemon, but keeping it warm might speed it up a little,” he explains as he gingerly places the pillows of his neatly made bed.

Just then, Leon’s mum peeks her head in the door, “Boys, there’s a Wooloo outside trying to break through the front gate again. Take care of it for me, will you?” Of course, the two never back down from the chance to deal in anything pokemon related and are out the door by the time she can even thank them.

  
  


Raihan sleeps over the next few days, though it isn’t unusual that he’s over at Leon’s house for days at a time. Sometimes he wishes that Leon would come over more often, but Hammerlocke is big, busy, and loud, so he’s often tasked with making sure the other doesn’t get lost in the city rather than being able to freely explore and meet new pokemon as he can here in Postwick. It’s quaint, and they don’t have to worry about any seedy creepers lurking in the night in the dark alleyways of Hammerlocke and can instead explore to their heart’s content (aside from the Slumbering Weald, of course, which they both know plenty well is off-limits).

They’ve stayed in mostly, doting over the egg and keeping an eye for any sign that it will hatch soon. Pokemon eggs don’t usually take long to hatch by what Professor Magnolia told them, though he supposes that an incubator speeds up the process quite a bit, but in the end there’s nothing they can do but wait. Though, it still doesn’t stop their endless theories on what the pokemon in the egg will turn out to be.

“What if it’s a Toxel?” Sonia gasps one night as they’re all smushed together on Leon’s couch, a bowl of ice cream in each pair of little hands as they watch whatever cartoon is on their favorite telly channel.  
  
“It’s from _Kanto_ , Sonia, they don’t have Toxel there,” Raihan teases, flicking his spoon at her to get some melted ice cream on her cheek. She sputters, wiping it off with the sleeve of her sweatshirt before sticking her tongue out at him, her Yamper pawing at him in her defense (albeit meekly).

Leon is unphased by their harmless spat, leaning back into the couch and swirling his ice cream around with his spoon thoughtfully. “It could be  _ anything _ , though. Ghastly, Dratini… It could even be an  _ Abra!”  _ His eyes sparkle with possibility even in the dim light of the living room, and it makes Raihan’s heart clench slightly.

“It could also be a _Rattata_ ,” Raihan chuckles, earning a shove from Leon which turns into playful fighting until Trapinch whines and shoves himself in between them to break it up. “Besides, the Professor said it’s strong, and that guy knows everything. I doubt he’d give you an egg that’s a complete dud.”  
  
“My grandma says every pokemon is special in their own way, even if they aren’t the best in battle,” Sonia states matter-of-factly, plopping another spoonful of ice cream onto her tongue. “I think that whatever it hatches into will suit you just fine, Leon,” she says around the mouthful, gesturing vaguely with her spoon.

“Yeah,” Leon nods, a hopeful smile on his face. “I know it will. I’m just ready to meet it, is all. I’ll only have a few months to train them until this year’s Gym Challenge starts. I don’t want to get behind and have to wait until next year.”

“Well, we’ll still wait for you even if you do, it’s not a big deal. It’s started the same day every year since before we were born, and we made a promise to start it together, remember?” Raihan knows that Leon feels like he’s dragging the two of them along without a pokemon of his own, but it doesn’t really bother him much. Once the egg hatches they can finally become proper rivals, and since they’ve waited so long, what’s another couple months of waiting going to hurt? He’d never even dream about leaving Leon behind—that’s not what best friends do. He raises his fist to Leon with a reassuring smile.

Leon looks up at him like Raihan’s just saved his life, his face crinkling dramatically and lips lifting into a wobbly, emotional smile, though he nods fiercely and bumping his own fist against his best friend’s. It serves to make Raihan’s tummy feel weird again, wanting to do everything in his power to make sure they’re both strong enough to face the Champion one day, just to see him keep smiling.

  
  


The trio doesn’t stay up much longer after that, Sonia splayed out on one of the loveseats with Yamper tucked against his chest while the two boys stay on the one they’d all been squeezed onto before. This time, however, Raihan’s Trapinch is replaced by the egg, nestled between them. Leon claimed that their body warmth would help let the pokemon know it’s safe, which Raihan isn’t really sure is true, though he could never tell his best friend no, especially with how cute he looks when he dotes over the egg, much like he had with Hop when he was a newborn. Raihan has humored him and let Leon stuff the egg in its blanket in between them, dead asleep as soon as the lamp cut out.

Raihan, however, is wide awake and absolutely regretting his decision. It’s no surprise to him that Leon is a clingy sleeper, considering how many times they’ve crammed together on his twin bed upstairs, however, it only took Leon approximately five minutes into his sleep to sprawl out, taking up any empty space left on the cushions and, subsequently, most of Raihain’s personal space. The other’s cheek is pressed against his shoulder, cheeks smushed in a way that makes Raihan’s stomach do flips. Though it’s nearly too dark to see anything, there’s just enough moonlight coming from the window behind them to illuminate Leon’s sleeping face. The egg is the only thing separating them, though Leon the way Leon is cuddled against it makes the fond feeling in Raihan’s chest blossom even more.

When Raihan told his mum about Leon, as he seemed to do without pause these days, she called it a  _ crush _ . Raihan knew what they were, of course—but he thought it was only something girls and boys had. He never knew he could have those feelings for _ Leon  _ of all people, because best friends don’t have crushes on each other, right? But Raihan can’t help how warm Leon always makes him feel, how infectious his bright smiles and loud laughter are.

Before Raihan’s brain can even comprehend what he’s doing, he acts on his feelings alone and leans forward a little to press a tiny kiss to Leon’s forehead, quickly jerking away as soon as he realizes that he’s done it. He doesn’t know why, or if he should’ve, but he hopes that his best friend is in a sleep as deep as it looks. Raihan tries to push it into the back of his mind, ready and willing to forget it even happened in the first place and try to sleep despite his heart beating out of his chest, but a sneeze sends him reeling to find the culprit.

A pair of green eyes stare back at him intensely, a hand over Sonia’s mouth as if she hadn’t meant to make a sound. Raihan’s stomach drops to his toes, and they stare at each other for another few seconds before she’s quickly ducking back beneath her blanket again to hide her face. He doesn’t know what she saw, but by the look on her face, he’s sure she’d seen enough to pester him about it in the morning. He inwardly groans, letting his head hit the cushion behind him as he catches a glimpse of Leon’s sleeping face this time. Now he regrets it, shame hot and angry in his chest as he shifts and pulls his blanket up so he doesn’t have to look at his best friend again and just go to sleep already.

  
  


Eventually, Raihan does sleep, though he sure it wasn’t until his mind was tired of the thoughts running rampant within, and it seems like as soon as he drifted off he’s being tugged awake again. The sunlight coming through the window blinds him, and he pulls his blanket up to shield himself before he hears Leon’s familiar chuckle beside him.

“You’re the last one up, come on! Mum’s making breakfast.” Leon tugs at Raihan again, forcefully pulling his blanket away and throwing it onto one of the other couches so it’s out of reach. His hair is pulled up into another small ponytail, his smile sleepy but bright all the same, and it makes Raihan remember what happened last night all over again.

Quickly averting his eyes, Raihan nods a little and stands up, hoping the warmth on his cheeks isn’t apparent to the other. “I’m gonna go pee first,” he mutters, shuffling upstairs before Leon can reply. Just as he’s opening the bathroom door, however, the knob turns against his palm and he’s met with Sonia’s wide eyes staring back at him once again, just as they did last night when she’d seen him kiss Leon. Before he can even speak Sonia is cornering him against the bathroom door, eyes narrowed accusingly.

“You like Leon, don’t you?” Sonia points a finger as his face, her other hand gripped against his arm to prevent him from moving.

“Shh, keep your voice down!” Raihan whisper-yells, eyes wide as he leans over to check and make sure no one is near the stairs to hear them. “What did you see last night?”

“Oh, I don’t know, just you making Yamper eyes at our best friend while he’s asleep and then  _ kissing _ him?!” Sonia pokes at his chest lightly to get her point across, though there’s no real malice behind her words or gestures. “Why didn’t you tell me you  _ like _ -liked him?”

Raihan puts his hands up in defense, “I didn’t know, okay? It just happened! I don’t even know why I did it!” He totally regrets everything now, knowing that he’s dug himself far too deep into a hole that he’s pretty sure he won’t be getting out of anytime soon. “You can’t tell anyone about this, though. Not your nan, not Nessa, nobody.” The last thing Raihan wants is for it to somehow get back to Leon that he kissed him in his sleep—it would probably ruin their entire friendship!

Sonia gives him another stern look, ginger brows wrinkling together in the middle as Raihan assumes she deliberates whether or not she’ll make him suffer. Though, after another few seconds, she lets out a heavy sigh and drops the hand holding him against the door, crossing her arms. “Fine,” she says, turning on her heel to head towards the stairs. She stops with her hand on the railing, shooting him one last glance, though this one isn’t as sharp as the others. “You should tell him, you know,” she says as if it would be that easy for Raihan. “Maybe he likes you back.” With a shrug, Sonia is gone, leaving Raihan to calm himself after the heart attack she just gave him.

  
  


Raihan becomes acutely aware of everything Leon does afterward, every single smile makes his heart race and every stupid joke makes him that much more fond of the other. He knows that he won’t get to kiss the other again, and it was only on Leon’s forehead that he kissed that night, so he envelopes himself in Leon’s presence once more and tries not to think too hard on why he wants to try kissing his lips one time, too.

Today they’re playing video games up in Leon’s room knee-to-knee in the floor, a controller in each pair of hands as they try to be quiet to not disturb Hop’s napping across the hall. The egg has shaken a few times, only spurring their excitement further, though nothing really changes aside from their growing impatience with the stubborn pokemon refusing to make its debut.

“Do you think I’ll be a good trainer, Rai? A proper rival to you and Sonia?” Leon asks as they’re nearing the end of the co-op mission they’re playing.

Raihan’s focused expression melts into one of concern, pausing the game for a second to give Leon his full attention, the other looking over at him with surprise. “What are you talking about? Of course you will, Leon. The fact that the Pokemon Professor himself thought you had what it takes should be  _ enough _ .” he gives Leon’s shoulder a little shove, incredulous that the other could even begin to think he won’t be an amazing trainer.

“Yeah…” Leon looks at the controller in his lap. chewing at his bottom lip for a second. “I guess I’m just scared to raise a pokemon from scratch, is all. All it will ever know is me and what I’ve taught it, you know? Your Trapinch came from the wild and Sonia’s Yamper has been with her for a year already, but as soon as my pokemon hatches I’ll have to start training if I want to be strong enough to take on the Champion this season.”  
  
“Well, only a handful of people even make it to the Champion on their first try, and there’s always next year. If you trust your pokemon and keep it safe and happy and it’ll do the same for you.” Raihan has bonded with his Trapinch a lot since his birthday, and he knows that he’ll be an amazing pokemon after he fully evolves.

“You’re right.” Leon nods, patting his face a couple of times before he returns Raihan’s smile, leaning over to bump shoulders with his best friend. “Sorry I doubted myself. It’s all brand new to me.”  
  
“You’ll do fine. Besides, you really think I’d let you fall behind when I’ve already waited months to finally call you my rival?” Raihan wraps an arm around Leon’s shoulders and gives him a little shake.

Leon laughs, looking up at Raihan, though his smile quickly falls when he realizes how close they are. Raihan isn’t sure what to do, knowing that if he pulls away it’ll be incredibly awkward, but wouldn’t be if it didn’t, too? There isn’t much time for him to think before Leon is doing the unthinkable, leaning in and tilting his head slightly until they come together. It isn’t anything fancy, just their lips touching, but it sends Raihan’s entire being ablaze even if he doesn’t understand  _ why _ .

But then, Raihan understands exactly  _ why. _

He’s reeling back a couple of seconds later, kicking himself way from Leon as his chest rises and falls rapidly from pure shock. “Why did you do that?” he sputters, a hand over his mouth as if he’d forget it easily.

Leon looks just as shocked as he does, as if he hadn’t meant to do it. He looks away for a second, twisting his fingers in the drawstring of his sweatpants so his shaking hands are occupied. “Well, I-” he stops himself, taking a shaky breath before looking up at Raihan again with a softer expression. “Sonia told me about what happened when we had the sleepover.”

Raihan feels like he could be sick, getting to his feet and hurriedly beginning to stuff his things back into his bag. Sonia promised she wouldn’t tell him—she knew how much this meant to him. She knew how embarrassed he was. Now the shame is back with a vengeance, warm on his cheeks and angry in the pit of his stomach. 

“Rai, wait,” Leon is up too, coming over to where his best friend is picking up his clothes from yesterday off the floor and shoving them into his bag. “You don’t have to go, we can just talk about it.” he reaches for Raihan’s arm to stop him, but the other only jerks it away and looks up at Leon for a moment. 

Raihan doesn’t know what he should say, though he doubts anything he could think of would be right, so he just looks back down to his bag and puts Trapinch’s ball inside. “I’m sorry, I need to go. I didn’t… I didn’t mean to.” The words hurt him as they leave his mouth, and he’s sure they hurt Leon too, but he doesn’t have time to think about that right now. He wants to go home, where he doesn’t have to look at Leon’s pretty smiles or listen to his corny jokes. Where he can sit and think about what he’s done.

Leon watches him leave after that, silent and unreadable. Raihan wants to know what he’s thinking, what he’s taken from this so that maybe their friendship isn’t completely ruined like Raihan suspects it will be. Nonetheless, the taller is gone within another few minutes, disregarding the confused look on Leon’s mum’s face as he practically sprints down the stairs and out the door.

  
  


Raihan cries when he gets home. Well, he cries a lot in the next few days but he can’t really help it. His mum tells him it’ll be okay and that it was just a misunderstanding, but he doubts he’ll ever be able to look Leon in the face again after what’s happened. Trapinch gives him what comfort he can, too, practically attached to Raihan’s side wherever he goes. Raihan tells Rotom to keep his phone on silent, though when he checks at night he sees the texts and calls from Leon, even some from Sonia. He doesn’t read them, he just forces himself to not get lost in his thoughts and sleep it off.

This goes on for another four days, going about his days like normal (or as normal as they could be without Leon) and focusing on building up his team and making them as strong as possible. He’d gone into the Wild Area and, with the help of a friendly Lapras, had made it into the Lake of Outrage to catch himself a Goomy, one of his favorite dragon types, while avoiding the incredibly strong pokemon in the area (he thanks whoever invented repels for keeping him out of trouble). She and Trapinch have been getting along great, and it’s done wonders to let Raihan avoid the more pressing matter at hand.

Of course, Raihan would never be able to avoid Leon forever, especially since he  _ does _ still want to know what pokemon his egg will hatch in to, and on the fifth morning of denial Raihan’s mum comes in his room and tells him, “Leon called and told me to tell you that he thinks the egg is hatching today. I’m guessing you two still aren’t on speaking terms.” Raihan knows his mum just wants them to go back to normal, though even if she thinks a kiss isn’t a big deal, it’s an  _ incredibly _ huge deal to him.

However, hearing those words makes Raihan spring up. “Today?” He whines, rubbing his face aggressively. He wants to see the egg hatch, of course, but he doesn’t know how he’ll be able to face Leon after avoiding him for so many days. He knew he’d have to deal with it eventually, but he thought he’d get away with at least another week of avoidance. 

Raihan’s excitement to find out what Leon’s pokemon will be ends up being more important to him than the embarrassment and regret he still feels, and soon enough he’s getting ready to go over to Leon’s. He’s sure it will be awkward, and he’s sure he might have to flee back home if he can’t handle it, but he’d never miss the beginning of Leon’s journey as a pokemon trainer in a million years.

Raihan steps out of the taxi carriage and pats the Corviknight when it bends its huge head down to sniff at him, chuckling softly when it bumps its beak against his chin playfully. Heading down the trail to Leon’s house isn’t unfamiliar by any means, though unease and uncertainty still plague him as he takes his time gathering his thoughts and scuffing his feet against the dirt path. That is, until a yell captures his attention.

“Raihan! Hurry, it’s happening  _ now _ !” Leon is unlatching the gate and gestures wildly for Raihan to hurry up.

Well, any hesitation that Raihan had was now sufficiently thrown out the window. “Right now?!” he yells back, stumbling as his feet travel faster than his brain does up to Leon’s house.

“Over here,” Leon doesn’t hesitate to grab Raihan’s hand, pulling him over to the large tree in the corner of the yard where the egg is nestled into the grass, shaking and already cracked in some places.

Raihan gasps, sitting down in front of the egg as Leon does the same, both of their eyes wide and knees bouncing with anticipation as they watch the pokemon inside break through its hard shell. After about a minute the cracking and shaking stop, almost worrying Raihan until the pokemon finally pushes it’s way out of the egg, toppling over and crawling out.

A gasp from each boy, both yelling in unison. “A Charmander?!”

The Charmander looks up at them both, shaking out its limbs from being cooped up in the egg for so long. Though, it smiles at them as if it recognizes their voices and trills happily. It’s a little wobbly on its stubby orange legs, but it makes its way to Leon and the boy immediately bursts into tears, scooping his pokemon up into his arms and hugging it close like it would run away if it let him. The pokemon doesn’t seem to mind, though, making a happy little sound and nuzzling against Leon’s shoulder.

Raihan watches the two with a proud smile on his face, happy that Leon finally gets to be a pokemon trainer after months of seeing his two best friends training with theirs. The Pokemon Professor wasn’t joking when he said the pokemon would be powerful, either—you’d have to be living under a rock to not know that Charizard is one of the strongest pokemon ever. He would be jealous if he didn’t have as much faith in his own team, but he knows that both of them will train hard to be strong and face each other in the finals of the Gym Challenge one day (hopefully soon). “Of all the pokemon it could’ve been, I didn’t expect a Charmander,” he finally speaks up after Leon is done bawling his eyes out.

The other sniffles, a wobbly smile on his face as he sits Charmander in his lap and nearly starts sobbing again when the pokemon beams at him, arms up in excitement. “I didn’t either…” he mutters, wiping his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. “But I think it likes me already, yeah?” Though, as soon as Leon says this, the Charmander rolls off of his lap and toddles over to Raihan with another happy little warble.

Raihan chuckles, picking it up from under its arms and lifting it up to eye-level. “I think it recognizes our voices from when it was in the egg. I’m not your trainer though, so don’t go getting attached to me.” The Charmander reaches out and places it’s warm palms against Raihan’s cheeks, smiling back at him and wiggling a bit in his hands. A moment later, Leon presses a kiss to Raihan’s cheek and he nearly drops the pokemon, head whipping over to look at the other and putting Charmander down on his lap. He thought they’d just leave what happened behind, but it’s clear that Leon doesn’t want that.

“We don’t have to kiss,” Leon starts, his blush reaching the tips of his ears as he looks away for a second. “But I  _ do _ like you back.”

Raihan touches a hand to his cheek, the other covering his blushing face as he nods a little. Of course, he’d figured out easily enough that Leon kissing him meant that they shared feelings, though he has no idea what that means for them. Would they be… boyfriends? It seems a little weird since he thought that’s something only older people did, though he supposes it wouldn’t be much different than what they do as best friends (besides the kissing, of course, which Raihan will never get used to). “Still doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to crush you as my rival,” he giggles, not wanting the awkwardness between them anymore. The past few days were awful without Leon to keep him company, and he never wants to go through something like this with him again.

“Nuh-uh! Just watch, I’ll have a Charizard before you know it, and I’ll beat the Champion on my first try!” Leon huffs, crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at Raihan.

  
Raihan laughs, Leon's words only affirming that even though they like each other, being rivals and, above all else,  best friends is most important to them both.

**Author's Note:**

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> i hope you enjoyed! kudos and comments are greatly appreciated <3


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